Small Business Saturday UK 2026: Saturday 5 December and How Shops Take Part

Small Business Saturday UK 2026 is Saturday 5 December, according to the organiser, Small Business Saturday UK. The day takes place on the first Saturday in December, the organiser says, and its About page lists the next event as “December 5th, 2026”. That is one week after the United States day on Saturday, Nov. 28, and the United Kingdom (UK) campaign has its own pack, its own accounts and, this year, no business finder.

How shops take part in Small Business Saturday UK

Taking part means using the organiser’s 2026 marketing pack and promoting the shop yourself. The organiser’s site is the place to start: it carries a newsletter sign-up on the homepage, and the pack page explains how to request the materials. We found no business registration for the day on the organiser’s site on Nov. 4, 2026.

The campaign is led by Michelle Ovens, a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), who is named on the organiser’s site as “Director of Small Business Saturday UK”. The site says the day is “Proudly supported by American Express”. It gives conflicting counts of how long the UK campaign has run, so we print no start year.

What is in the 2026 marketing pack

The organiser’s “Our 2026 Marketing Pack” contains:

• Campaign logos, dated and undated, in Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), PNG and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) formats
• Social media graphics, with suggested posts to go with them
• A campaign poster, including a print-ready A3 PDF
• Brand guidelines and a one-page guide to the campaign

To get it, watch the short video on the pack page, tick the Terms & Conditions box and press “Request Pack”.

What happened to the Small Business Finder

The organiser’s Small Business Finder page now reads: “We have now said goodbye to our My Small Business and Small Business Finder features.” Shops therefore cannot list themselves there. They promote themselves through the pack and their own channels: the window poster, the social graphics and posts, and the shop’s own newsletter or website.

The organiser’s own accounts are Instagram (smallbizsatuk), TikTok (@smallbizsatuk), Facebook (SmallBusinessSaturdayUK) and LinkedIn (small-business-saturday-uk). We found no official UK hashtag, so we do not suggest one.

Small Business Saturday in the UK and the US

	United Kingdom	United States
Date in 2026	Saturday 5 December	Saturday, Nov. 28
Rule	First Saturday in December, per the organiser	Date given by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for 2026
Who runs or supports it	Small Business Saturday UK, “proudly supported by American Express”	American Express founded it in 2010; the SBA has co-sponsored since 2011
Source	smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com	sba.gov/Saturday

In 2025 the UK day was Saturday 6 December, according to GOV.UK. For the US day, see our Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday 2026 guide.

Countdown for shop owners to 5 December

These steps are our suggestions, counted back from Saturday, December 5, 2026. Only the pack contents and the date come from the organiser.

Date	Step
Sat., Nov. 7	Request the 2026 marketing pack
Sat., Nov. 14	Print the A3 poster and plan your posts
Sat., Nov. 21	Schedule posts with the pack graphics
Sat., Nov. 28	Put the poster up and follow the organiser accounts
Fri., Dec. 4	Check stock and Saturday opening hours
Sat., Dec. 5	Post on the day and tag the organiser accounts

The printable below puts these steps on one page, with room for notes after the day. Mark the date on your December 2026 printable calendar, and check the UK holidays page when planning opening hours. Shops that ship orders can use the Royal Mail last posting dates. Shoppers planning the weekend can see the UK Christmas markets dates.

What the organiser has not announced

The organiser says its team will be “Out And About” across the UK in 2026, but it had posted no dates or places on Nov. 4, 2026. The Nation’s Favourite Businesses programme, which Business Wales (Welsh Government) calls Small Biz 100, is also closed to entries. Business Wales said on 2 June 2026 that the campaign highlights 100 small businesses, one a day for 100 days leading up to Small Business Saturday 2026, and that applications close on 30 June 2026.